The Discovery of iron Ore in the Cleveland Hills – 1850

The Event:

The members of Cleveland and Teesside History Society voted this the most significant event in the history of Cleveland and Teesside. The details are shrouded in mystery and legend, but what is known is that ????

The Significance:

The discovery of iron ore did not mark the start of iron and steel making in Middlesbrough, or even in Teesside. There had been iron foundries ????And it did not bring the Ironmasters Bolclow and Vaughan to Middlesbrough – they had established their iron-works on the banks of the Tees some ten years earlier.

But what the discovery of iron-ore in the Cleveland Hills provided a source of one of the essential resources for iron-making less than ten??? Miles from the foundries. The problems and costs of transporting iron ore from elsewhere disappeared. The local industrialists had access to iron ore, to coal from the Durham coal fields, and a river to transport their goods across the world. They could now expand. By ??? the iron and steel industry on Teesside provided ???? of the world trade.